Carabao Cup Thread - H draw v Spurs in next round Weds 31 Oct

IronHerb

MrsGrey said:

It won't be Chicarito

;lol

MunichHammer

How often have we just parked the bus against top opposituon? Cup ties against lower league opposition are usually not easy, Bayern Munich only barely scraped through against a team from the fourth tier. They scored with some 5 minutes to go.

whupathman

you are 45 seconds ahead of the bbc five live lol

ianbishoplegend

The Basset and gold lions roar on through

Lukerz

Never in doubt IMO

Very impressed how we managed that game

SuzanneClaret

Some good things to take from that game... the back four is not one of them.

Wimbledon worked realy realy hard.

MrsGrey

IronHerb said:

MrsGrey said:

It won't be Chicarito

;lol

Own goal?

DJ Hammer

sweepy23 said:

How many chances does Hernandez want?

One

Yeoldhammer

Got there in the end

MrsGrey

Interview after - Diop, talk us through your goal... Diop says, I get the ball and I shoot. ;lol

whupathman

#upandrunning

welovethehammers

Snodgrass looks better in a central role than out wide.

Rice has had (another) great performance once again. He HAS to play considering how weak our central midfield (and central/left side of defence) has been so far this season.

Ironically I worry about our centre backs but they both scored. I'm sure if we spent the majority of the game on the back foot they'd have worried me but with the pressure off them it's been a lot better. Diop imo has potential but is a bit raw (and has been thrown in the deep end at 21).

Anderson starting to settle in from the looks of things.

Obiang doesn't offer much.

Obviously we played a League 1 side with 10 men but I liked how we dominated territorially. If we can start transitioning so we do this again Premier League opposition we could be dangerous. Still a lot to work on though and it's the second game in a row where we've dominated territorially yet struggled to put away many of our chances. We won though which is the main thing in cup competitions.

Hammerwombat

Chicharito, sort your Barnet out chap. Are you blonde or not? Get your roots done before you score next.

WHU_Champo_league_in_7_years

Much of that was a struggle

No surprise we stepped up when we had Anderson on the pitch instead of Obiang who wasnt needed nor was he having a good game anyways

CB pairing didnt look good...so rash at time even though Wimbledon offered nothing after they went down to 10 men yet still seemed a bit panicky

Hernandez got a goal but he doesnt do enough still and there is no comparison between him and Arnie, Arnie offers so much even when he doesnt score

Cuz1

Glad you meant Chico and not Carroll might not be with us when he scores next

grey_til_I_dye

A pleasingly professional display, imo. We didn't panic, and played to a clear system.

A lot better than previous efforts in this competition.

MrsGrey

Looking at the post match analysis, was Adrian badly positioned for the first corner?

Lukerz

grey ;ok

Despite everything, we haven't dominated against a lower league side like that since I can remember. Even before the red we were getting in behind at will.

We had a clear philosophy for how we were going to go about winning that game & we stuck to it even though it looked for long spells it may prove fruitless.

Very encouraged. As I said, three points on Saturday (as hard a game as that will be), things will start looking up.

Lukerz

Top marks for Snodgrass, who I thought controlled the entire match. Also impressed with Cresswell & Rice. ;ok

EXETERHAMMER

Got there in the end. Lots of positives. Rice was outstanding. Future captain I think.

However, we are nowhere near settled enough at the back. We look so vunerable.

Lukerz

Just compare the approach to that game to how we approached Shrewsbury and Wigan in the FA Cup last season.

sweepy23

So happy to be in the hat. Love a draw.

MrsGrey

Just reading match reports. I see we had 81% possession.

28 shots compared to their 2. 11 on target compared to their 1.

And yet, with 10 mins to go, it looked like it could have gone to pens.

#footballsmad

tomkinsworldclass

I enjoyed the performance. Fair play to Wimbledon as they started on the front foot (as they needed to do) but as soon as we adjusted to their direct play we completely dominated, created lots, passed it well and showed good patience. As others have said, we had a better structure and solidness to the team which, even though its against lower league, shows that the team are starting to develop some kind of cohesion and autonomy as to how Pellegrini wants us to play, which is unquestionably something very different to how we have played in previous years.

I'd single Rice , Yarmalenko and Snodgrass out. Rice was excellent, really controlled things, did his defensive work and used the ball very nicely in a supportive role. Snodgrass was superb again (following on from his good start to the season) and really looks like he is fully committed and confident; if we can create a bit more space for him then he be a real asset for us because he is one of our best technical players and someone that can protect the ball and link up play. Yarmalenko was frustrating and quite unlucky tonight but he clearly has ability and real skill; physically he needs to be brought up to speed but once fully integrated he offers some really nice variations to our game.

Bring on Wolves ;scarf ;scarf ;scarf ;scarf

alderz

I thought Yarmolenko was very disappointing, but then the commentator said it was his first club start since January and considering that he was pretty lively. He’ll definitely need a bit of time to get up to speed

TheMadcapLaughs

Reading the various forums this morning I can`t believe the amount of negativity. We were shockingly poor against Liverpool, but have improved game on game since. I thought we played really well last night, our finishing/final ball were often poor, but I thought overall our football was fantastic. I thought we`d all been crying out for pass and move football, we now have pass and move football, and whats more astonishing is our passes seem to be to our own players. Perez was a little disappointing but I think all our other signings have shown that they can improve our first team/squad with one or two being particularly impressive. I thought Yarmolenko was one of our better players, poor final ball but he is constantly looking to make things happen, think he could be another Arnie. My biggest worry is Oggie, I might be in the minority, but he is one of my favourite players, I like him, he seems a decent chap. But he does switch off, the Juventus fans seem to have been proved right. I think he has oodles of ability, is surprisingly quick, but his concentration seems to wander. He reminds me of my son, first ever "competitive" game as a five year old in goal on sports day. Chatting to another parent and suddenly everyone is shouting my sons name, I look up to see their striker stroking the ball into a strangely unattended net. "What happened" I say afterwards. "Picking daisies" was my sons reply. I fear Oggie is off picking daisies at times.

Pellegrini has a plan, he wants us to play football. We are showing signs that his message is getting through. Win, lose or draw I`m going to try and enjoy this season. I think we may well flirt with relegation, I think Pellegrini needs another couple of windows, but I think in the long run we may well get some very decent football. Very hard to pick our best 11 at the moment, but I think somewhere in there we have a very decent side. ;scarf

Lukerz

Madcap ;ok

It's always a no-win situation, a game like that. It was against a League One side, who had 10 men for 70 mins of the match, & it took a while for our dominance to gain rewards.

But honestly I can't see how, after our last two performances (& a half v Bournemouth), people can't see the improvement. It is a totally different way of playing & fashioning chances to what we are used to.

You can say 'it's only Wimbledon', but it was only Wigan/Shrewsbury last year, it was only Accrington the year before that etc etc. We still have not been as dominant & professional as we were last night in any lower league game I can remember. Even last year when we beat Cheltenham 0-2 at the same stage it was far more even.

The attitude of those players, many of whom would never have experienced a ground/environment like that, was excellent.

I thought Diop was much more confident after his goal (funnily enough), whereas before he still looked a bit rash (but rash in a Winston Reid kind of way under Avram, & look how that's changed). Ogbonna at fault for the goal, but everybody else in the side contributed well. Obiang struggled but not sure it was a game for him tbh. Perez wasn't as influential but I thought he had a lot of good movement throughout.

No complaints from me. Yes we should have expected to win & play well, but previous history shows that rarely happens. We were very composed last night, especially after being 1-0 for an hour.

thornburyiron

Madcap I don't see where you see a huge amount of negativity generally. I think everyone agrees we are improving game on game and our football has been much better than we've seen for a long time.
The only negativity I've picked up and I've commented on it myself is our defence seem to be at sixes and sevens a lot of times and even last night we gave their player a complete unopposed run at the ball for the goal. Also apart from Arnie our attacking players don't seem to know where the goal is and we regularly either over hit or under hit crosses.
Hopefully if we keep playing the decent football that will all come together.

TheMadcapLaughs

Thorn, on a couple of other forums, especially after the first half, looking at the match threads you would think we were back to the dark days of BFS at our very worst. I was really enjoying the game, I had a quick peruse of peoples general view, and concluded I was watching a different game.

alderz

For me, we have definitely improved in the last two games quite significantly. We're keeping the ball well and creating chances. The frustration I had watching the game last night was that, towards the end of the first half, we seemed to have one approach - wide and cross. Now, I know that it's difficult to do much else when someone sticks everyone behind the ball, but you saw the difference Anderson made when he came on with his ability to run at people and thread a ball.

When Wimbledon had 11 we were cutting them to shreds with balls between the lines, but once they dropped to 10 we just went wide and crossed it onto Will Nightingale's head and repeated for the rest of the half.

I like the look of Diop, personally. He's got pace, he's aggressive, he's confident on the ball. Yeah he made a couple of rash decisions against Arsenal, but he's 21. I'd like to see him and Reid play together. Hopefully it won't be too long.